stunned disbelief. Mother of God. He’d never received a ransom demand. He hadn’t! His stomach boiled as acid rose in his throat. He turned and laid his forehead against the wall and brought his clenched fist to rest a few inches away. He felt wetness on his cheeks but made no move to wipe it away.
A few moments later, the therapist eased out of the bedroom and looked at Chrysander. He expected condemnation in her eyes but saw only a faint sympathy.
“I’ve sedated her. She was nearly hysterical. She needs rest above all else. Her reality is very painful, so she retreats. That same self-preservation is what prompted her amnesia. Now that she no longer has that protective buffer, she struggles to cope in the best way she knows how. Be gentle and understanding with her. Don’t push her too hard.”
She patted him on the arm as she walked past.
“Call me if you need me. I’ll come at once.”
“Thank you,” Chrysander said hoarsely.
When she left, Chrysander turned and shuffled farther into the sitting room and sagged onto the couch.
“Dear God,” he said bleakly.
“I heard,” Theron said with a grimace.
“She never stole anything.” Chrysander closed his eyes and dragged a hand through his hair. “Theos. I never got a ransom demand. She thinks…she thinks I left her to those animals, that I didn’t care enough to pay half a million dollars for her return.”
Theron put a comforting hand on Chrysander’s shoulder. “There is much we need to investigate.”
Chrysander nodded. His thoughts hardened as he turned from the anguish over Marley’s revelation and forced himself to play back the events of that night.
The realization, when it came, was so startlingly clear that he cursed himself for not having pieced it together before. He’d been too angry, too wounded by what he perceived as a betrayal by Marley.
“Roslyn,” he said tersely.
Theron raised a brow. “Your assistant?”
“She was there. Just before I found the papers in Marley’s bag. She must have planted them.”
Another thought occurred to him, one that sickened him and made him want to empty his stomach. Any ransom demand would have gone to his office. His residences were highly guarded secrets. Marley had said that he’d ignored ransom demands, but now he realized they could have been delivered and intercepted. By Roslyn.
He stood and whirled around to face his brother. “You will stay here with Marley. Make sure she goes nowhere and that she is well cared for. I’ll send a physician over to monitor her condition.”
Theron also stood. “Where are you going, brother?”
“I’m going to find out if what I suspect is true,” he said in a dangerously low voice.
“Chrysander, wait.”
Chrysander paused and stared back at his brother.
“You should call the authorities. If you confront her and gain a confession, it won’t do any good. Only you will know.”
Chrysander clenched his fists in frustration, but he knew his brother was right. He didn’t want Roslyn to get away with what she’d done. He could make her life miserable, but she would still be free. He wanted justice.
Chrysander paced the confines of his New York office as he waited for Roslyn to arrive. He didn’t want to be here. He wanted to be with Marley. Theron had stayed with her, and Chrysander simmered with impatience. Her condition hadn’t changed. Even when she’d awakened, she’d been distant, unfocused, there but not there. It was as if she’d gone to a place where he couldn’t hurt her anymore.
He closed his eyes and tried to focus on the task at hand. When he heard Roslyn enter, he stiffened. It was all he could do not to rage at her, not to break her skinny neck. It took everything he had to smile and act as though nothing was wrong, as though he didn’t loathe the very ground she walked on.
“You wanted to see me?” Roslyn said breathlessly.
“I did,” Chrysander murmured. He let his gaze run suggestively over her body even as his flesh crawled.
Her eyes brightened, and her stance immediately became suggestive.
“I’ve only just become aware of the lengths to which you went to try and get my attention,” he said with a chuckle. “Men can be thick, so you women say, but I think maybe I was thicker than most.”
Confusion rippled across her face, and she struggled to retain a look of innocence. She couldn’t be sure what he was talking about yet, but it would soon be clear. He watched her body language, her eyes, the windows into the soulless bitch that she was.
“Why did you not just say you wanted me?” he purred. “It would have saved us a lot of trouble. Instead, I was trapped in a relationship I didn’t want, though I appreciate the efforts you made to rid me of that problem.”
Roslyn relaxed, and a cold smile flashed across her face. It was strange, but Chrysander had never realized just how ugly she was.
“How did you arrange it?” he asked silkily.
He listened in horror as she outlined what she’d done to make it appear as though Marley had stolen the plans. The kidnapping had been an added bonus, but when she’d received the ransom demand at his office, she’d seen her opportunity to be rid of Marley once and for all.
So anxious was she to prove her devotion to Chrysander, that she didn’t realize she’d admitted to selling his plans to his competitor.
“So you stole the plans and gave them to Marcelli.” His voice was like ice, and she flinched at his tone. Her face whitened as she realized just what she’d confessed to.
“You then framed Marley, thinking not only would you have the proceeds from selling me out to my competitor, but then you would have Marley out of the way so you could move into her place.”
Her mouth opened and closed, and he could see the realization settle in that he’d duped her and was furious.
“And then when the ransom demands were delivered to my office, you destroyed them, hoping what, Roslyn, that they would kill her? Permanently remove her from the picture?”
He was shaking he was so angry. She simmered before him in a red haze. All he could see was Marley alone and frightened. Pregnant with his child and vulnerable. Thinking that not only did he hate her but that he’d simply left her to her fate. He wanted to weep.
Roslyn seemed to recover her composure, and she looked scornfully at him. “You’ll never prove it.”
“I don’t have to,” he said softly. He pressed the small intercom button on his desk. “You may come in now, Detective.”
Roslyn swayed as three policemen entered the room, their expressions grim.
“You can’t do this!” she shrieked. “I love you, Chrysander. I would have done anything for you.”
He shook his head and turned away from her rantings as she was escorted away in handcuffs. He had no desire to listen to her. He wanted to return to Marley.
“Forgive me, agape mou,” he whispered.
Marley was dimly aware that she was being carried yet again. It wasn’t Chrysander. She was intimately familiar with his touch. For a moment she panicked, and then she heard comforting words being spoken in Greek and then in English.
“Rest easy, little sister. You are safe.”
“Where are we going?” she asked weakly.
“Someplace safe,” he soothed. “Chrysander won’t allow anything to happen to you.”
She wanted to protest that Chrysander wouldn’t do anything for her, but she couldn’t muster the energy. At some point, she heard Chrysander, and she cursed the fact that she immediately felt safer and that some of the panic abated.
She felt the brush of lips against her forehead and then firm hands tucking her into bed. Fingers stroked through her hair, and warmth enveloped her.
“You are safe, agape mou. I’ll never allow anyone to hurt you again.”
“Don’t call me that,” she cried. “Never again.” But she held to Chrysander’s promise even as her heart screamed in protest. He’d lied to her. She couldn’t believe anything
he said. And yet she relaxed and settled into a dreamless sleep.
When Marley next awoke, there was a crispness to her mind that had been absent since the day she’d regained her memory. No longer did fog shroud her memories. She both welcomed and cursed the new awareness. Gone was any confusion, but with that new clarity came inevitable heartbreak.
She felt alert, as though she’d slept a week. And maybe she had. She had no idea how much time had passed, and while her past was no longer a mystery, the events of the last few days were hazy and fractured.
With a reluctant sigh, she pushed back the covers and eased her legs over the side of the bed. As she glanced around, she realized she had no idea where she was. The room was spacious and cheerful, with several windows to allow natural lighting.
She pushed herself up and walked into the adjoining bathroom, her eyes widening at the size and luxury. She eyed the Jacuzzi tub with longing. While she might not know how many days had passed—they’d all been a blur—she did know that she hadn’t had a bath in a while, and she couldn’t wait to feel clean and refreshed again.
Bracing her foot on the step to the tub, she leaned over and turned the handle to start the water. When she looked up, she saw Chrysander standing in the doorway. A startled gasp escaped her.
He started forward immediately and grasped her arm to steady her. “I’m sorry for frightening you, pedhaki mou. It was not my intention. I worried when I came in to check on you and you were not in bed.”
“I just wanted a bath,” she said in a low voice.